108 BORNEO. [chap.v. 



becoming quite hilly, and towards the south, mountainous. 

 I took bearings and sketches of all that was visible, an 

 operation which caused much astonishment to the Dyaks 

 who accompanied me, and produced a request to exhibit 

 the compass when I returned. I was then surrounded by 

 a larger crowd than before, and when I took my evening 

 meal in the midst of a circle of about a hundred spectators 

 anxiously observing every movement and criticising every 

 mouthful, my thoughts involuntarily recurred to the lions 

 at feeding time. Like those noble animals, I too was used 

 to it, and it did not affect my appetite. The children here 

 were more shy than at Tabokan, and I could not persuade 

 them to play. I therefore turned showman myself, and 

 exhibited the shadow of a dog's head eating, which pleased 

 them so much that all the village in succession came out 

 to see it. The " rabbit on the wall " does not do in 

 Borneo, as there is no animal it resembles. The boys had 

 tops shaped something like whipping-tops, but spun with 

 a string. 



The next morning we proceeded as before, but the river 

 had become so rapid and shallow and the boats were all 

 so small, that though I had nothing with me but a change 

 of clothes, a gun, and a few cooking utensils, two were 

 required to take me on. The rock which appeared here 

 and there on the river-bank was an indurated clay-slate, 

 sometimes crystalline, and thrown up almost vertically. 



